Category: Film


  • Revisiting Friday the 13th Part III (1982)

    The move into the third dimension had been experimented with in cinemas long before Jason picked up that hockey mask. The 1950โ€™s was the golden age of this technology with Andre de Tothโ€™s House of Wax (1953) heralding a wave of, mostly, horror films to the 3D screen. William Castle, long an exponent of the…

  • Scooby-Doo: Neil Fanning on Door-Opening Moments, How to โ€œScoobifyโ€ Words, and Stunts!

    As a fan of horror, comedy, musicals, and any combination thereofโ€ฆis it any surprise to anyone that I love Scooby-Doo? The answer should be as obvious as my orange shirt as I interview Neil Fanning: the actor, writer, producer, stunt performer, stunt safety supervisor, voice actor, and more who starred in Scooby-Doo (2002) and Scooby-Doo…

  • My First Time Watching SCREAM: An Iconic Film That Deserves Its Praise

    “What’s your favorite scary movie?” It’s maybe the most famous opening line in horror history, and I’d somehow never actually watched the movie it came from. I know, I know, how does someone who loves movies avoid SCREAM for this long? The Ghostface mask is everywhere, from Spirit Halloween stores to Reddit memes, and I’ve…

  • The Evil of Frankenstein (1964): Resurrection and Regression

    By 1964, Hammer Films stood at a crossroads. The great Gothic cathedral they had builtโ€”of blood, faith, and moral dreadโ€”was showing its cracks. Dracula and Frankenstein had already carved their myths deep into British cinematic history, terrifying and scandalizing audiences across the globe. Yet the hunger for more persisted. The world demanded another resurrection, another…

  • Revisiting Friday the 13th Part II (1981)

    The screen transitions from darkness to a nighttime suburban street. A little girl named Jessie sings โ€˜Incy Wincy Spiderโ€™, one foot in the flooded gutter, the other on the pavement before she is called in by her mother. Moments later, a Hitchcockian violin stab screeches in time to an adult pair of boots splashing violently…

  • Looking Back at Friday the 13th (1980)

    Over the next thirteen weeks, the Friday the 13th franchise will be ripped apart, dissected and, maybe, put back together again by nanites (depending on what century we are in). This is a series of films that has taken the audience on a hell of a ride from the low-fi beginnings at Crystal Lake before…

  • Ranking The Franchise: Alien

    I love ranking franchises! Even bad franchises. And I think that’s what shocked me the most after my recent watch of the entire Alien franchise: it’s not particularly good. Whereas many of the classic horror franchises I’ve ranked to this point (Halloween, Friday the 13th, Child’s Play) tend to have a roller coaster like experience…

  • Friday The 13th And The Multiple Jasons Theory

    I’m not crazy, okay? Just… don’t forget that as we go on here. I mean, I’m nuts for Jason Movies, but that’s allowable, right? They are good-to-great movies! Well… okay-to-great. All right, they are sucky-to-great. I know, I know. Jason Goes To Hell still exists. More on that one later, though, because it’s about to…

  • The Kiss of the Vampire (1963): The Ritual of Blood and Desire

    By 1963, Hammerโ€™s cathedral of Gothic horror stood tall. Dracula had already bared its fangs to the world; Frankenstein had resurrected the flesh of gods; The Phantom of the Opera had mourned beautyโ€™s decay beneath the stage. But now, with The Kiss of the Vampire, Hammer stepped into a new chamber โ€” one where the…

  • The Phantom of the Opera (1962): The Elegy Beneath the Stage

    By 1962, Hammerโ€™s Gothic world had already been soaked in blood and revelation. Dracula and Frankenstein had rewritten the language of British horror; The Curse of the Werewolf had turned that language into lamentation. And then came The Phantom of the Opera โ€” not a storm of violence, but a sigh. Terence Fisherโ€™s Phantom is the…